Do you know only 22% of businesses are ever satisfied with their rates of conversion? So much so, 84% of people will not make a purchase if they are dealing with an unsecured or unresponsive website. And according to the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, about 20% of small businesses tend to fail by the end of the first year.
If we are to consider the statistical revelations mentioned above, it is to be noted that challenges in business comes in different shapes and forms. Unless the entrepreneur is able to identify the loopholes and prospective challenges in his/her trade practices, overcoming the odds will always be difficult.
Now, in case you are grappling with a downward business graph and constantly trying to improve the scenario, invest some time in reading this blog. You will be able to get the hang of some of the most common business challenges and remedial measures that can be taken in order to fix the issue.
Here you go.
#1. Acquiring productive employees at work
Especially, when you have a small business to run, you may tend to run out of sufficient resources to initiate the task of hiring fresh talents. A headhunter can help you in this way. In today’s world, the cost of employee onboarding is an average of more than $4,000. Employee turnovers can get extremely expensive if an individual fails to hire well.
Remedial Measures:
Build a strong employer brand. For your information, a Glassdoor survey found that 69% of respondents are likely to apply for a job if the recruiter manages his/her brand, acknowledges reviews, follows up with the prospective employee and updates company profile from time to time.
In addition to it, embracing digital trends on social media is said to be one effective measure to keep up with the latest industry trends. Monitoring a candidate’s social media activity can actually give you a better picture of the individual you are interested in.
Last but not the least; you must work on the aspect of improving interviews. Instead of shooting too many questions to the prospective employee, allow employees to interview you as well. Letting candidates ask you questions, shall help you understand what’s important to them, thus ensuring better clarity.
#2. Generating sufficient leads
Even though one manages to recruit talented people at work, generating sufficient leads for the coveted Return on Investment might not be everyone’s cup of tea. As a matter of fact, only one in every ten marketers finds their lead generation strategies effective. Ensuring successful lead generation requires an individual to invest enough time in client acquisition, media coverage and the likes.
Remedial Measures:
First things first; it is important for you to know whether your company website has compelling “Call to Action” banners to attract all prospective clients. Secondly, you should monitor and confirm whether your site uses form analytics tools such as Gravity Forms, Forminator, Google Forms and the likes.
These tools help in automatically pulling the submissions from your client feedback/query forms by putting them directly into your contact database. In addition to paying heed to these aspects, make sure you are creating custom landing pages for every single business campaign you run.
Prioritising the most popular pages on your website and optimising them with high-quality blogs and informative journals for your clients will ensure higher conversion rates.
#3. Lack of proper marketing strategies
You may come up with a brilliant marketing idea, but executing the same in an effective way might get a tad difficult under various circumstances. In order to let people know about your brand’s existence, you need to get the hang of proper marketing strategies. In a world where 36% of marketers are actively trying to integrate traditional and digital marketing activities, lagging behind the marketing game is likely to pose a great danger to your incorporation.
Remedial Measures:
How about running a SWOT analysis to identify your company’s Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats? This assignment will allow you to have a clear picture of what your business is best at, the areas you need to work on, potential factors that can place your organisation at risk, and the market opportunities that were left unexplored.
The key to creating a winning marketing strategy is to determine your organisation’s objective. Specific marketing objectives define all measurable outcomes and milestones that will be achieved within a particular frame of time.
Once you are done creating the perfect marketing objectives for your firm, consider re-evaluating the same, every six months. This will help you to make other changes at regular intervals, in accordance with the latest industry trends.
#4. Managing company finances
It goes without saying, having strong cash flow and properly managed finance shall fuel your business in the most effective way. Sadly, this is one area that tends to create obstructions for several businessmen.
According to a report by GemConsortium, more than half of discontinued organisations failed to resume production due to lack of financial strengths and profits. Even if you are receiving enough funds and payments from your clients, things might go haywire if you lack you lack finance management skills.
Remedial Measures:
Firstly, you need to track daily income and expenses associated with the organisation. Online tools such as Quicken, BudgetPulse and MoneyBrilliant might come into play in this matter.
Secondly, you must prioritise creating an emergency fund. Keep aside a particular chunk of profit and invest the same in banking activities and contingency funds. This will help you to run the show amidst extreme odds.
Lastly, it is important for you to get your cash flow organised. Even if you have little or no revenue generation, make it a point to keep track of each and every activity. Enthusiastic entrepreneurs may choose to harness the potential of cash flow management tools such as QuickBooks, Google Docs, and CashAnalytics.
#5. Acquiring and retaining customers in the long run
Client acquisition and retention are perhaps one of the most challenging aspects associated with businesses. The ones who come and stay with your organisation for the long run are actually the kind of customers you must root for.
But, that might turn out to be difficult if you lack client retention skills. From meeting your clients’ expectation to acknowledging their role and presence in your firm; there are too many aspects to meet. Failing to prioritise your customers will gradually impact the growth graph of your organisation.
Remedial Measures:
To be frank, every business, at one point of time or the other, loses some customers. Only a handful of companies ever measure how many of their clients go inactive. And that’s exactly where the challenge lies. This makes it crucial for you to monitor client network and track your organisation’s progress simultaneously. Digitised tools such as PRTG Network Monitor, ManageEngine OpManager and Zabbix might help improve the scenario.
Secondly, focus on facilitating extraordinary customer service. Dedication to customer satisfaction is one of the most effective strategies. You need to meet the aspect of on-time delivery without fail, acknowledgement of client reviews and grievances, delivering exactly what you promise. Most importantly, you need to recruit talented and client-focused sales executives to deliver services efficiently.
One also needs to understand taking unethical shortcuts in client acquisition and retention is a big No-No. You must always learn to be consistent in what you say and what you do at the end of the day. For example, if you have a discounted price onboard, make sure there’s no hidden price or unclear terms and conditions associated with it.
Key Takeaways
I hope now you know about the potential challenges that can harm your business and the remedial measures that can save you from the catastrophe.
Here’s a quick glance at the key remedial measures we have learned in this blog:
- Build a strong employer brand value.
- Monitor candidate’s activity on social media sites in order to gain more clarity.
- Focus on active lead generation, use client feedback submission forms to merge all crucial information with your database.
- Prioritise the most popular pages on your business website and back them up with informative blogs for your clients.
- Lay focus on managing business finances, save enough and create contingency funds to tackle future mishaps.
- Keep track of your client’s journey; satisfy them with honest service deliverables, discounts and on-time solutions without fail.
Cheers!
About the Author!
Jedda Cain is a senior operations manager working for a distinguished corporate firm in Australia. She received her MBA from Murdoch University. She is associated with EssayAssignmentHelp where she serves assignment help to students on their requests to “write my assignment”. Apart from work commitments, she also dabbles into yoga and meditation.
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